Article 2: The conservation and restoration of monuments must have recourse to all the sciences and techniques which can contribute to the study and safeguarding of the architectural heritage’.

‘Article 16: in all works of preservation, restoration or excavation, there should always be precise documentation in the form of analytical and critical reports, illustrated with drawings and photographs. Every stage of the work of clearing, consolidation, rearrangement and integration, as well as technical and formal features identified during the course of the work, should be included. This record should be placed in the archives of a public institution and made available to research workers. It is recommended that the report should be published’ (Venice Charter, 1964).

In the study of built heritage, the preparation of a ‘precise documentation’ dataset of measured representations is of fundamental importance. This dataset can contribute to ‘create a permanent record’ of its past and present. As well as, to the ‘analytical report’ of its current condition and understanding of its authenticity, both of which encourage its future conservation.

The metric or measured set of representations could be seen as the most important and reliable source of information remaining of a monument that is either destroyed by natural phenomenon or by human action.

‘Recording is the capture of information which describes the physical configuration, condition and use of monuments, groups of buildings and sites, at points in time, and it is an essential part of the conservation process’ (Principles for the recording of monuments, groups of buildings and sites 1996, Sofia).

This research presents a framework for the effective use and selection of three-dimensional metric survey tools in capturing and presenting ’information which describes the physical configuration, condition’ (geometry and texture), ‘and use’ of a historic building’s fabric.

The work presented here is based, on the one hand, the research is based on a series of important and recent publications dealing with the application of electronic and image-based metric survey tools in three-dimensional recording of monuments.

On the other hand, reports on five first-hand case studies, where recording and dissemination tools have been used for preparing the foundation ‘dataset’ of measured representations are presented: al-Baleed